Best Friends Forever
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| South Park episode | |
| "Best Friends Forever" | |
 Kenny at Heaven's gates. |
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| Episode no. | 129 |
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| Airdate | March 30, 2005 |
| South Park - Season 9 March 9, 2005 – December 7, 2005 |
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| ← Season 8 | Season 10 → |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"Best Friends Forever" (also known as "Kenny's PSP") is episode 904 of the Comedy Central series South Park paralleling the Terri Schiavo controversy. The episode won a 2005 Emmy Award. It first aired on March 30, 2005, hours before Terri Schiavo died.
This episode made #7 on the list of "10 South Parks That Changed The World" and appeared on the South Park: The Hits DVD. And also, this episode will not be playing on the DVD Recorder with "A Collection of Funny Episodes."
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[edit] Plot summary
Kenny is the first person in town to get a new PSP videogame system and becomes inseparable from it. Meanwhile, Cartman, who couldn't get his own because he was late getting to the store, grows envious of Kenny's new toy. Kenny quickly works his way up to level 59 of the game Heaven vs. Hell, but because of his parents having an argument, he goes to complete the 60th level outside; there, he is hit by an ice-cream truck (driven by someone playing the same game who just reached level 4) and dies.
In Heaven, Kenny learns that God created the PSP to search for what the angels call "our Keanu Reeves" — the person who can command His legions against the forces of Hell in a manner like that of the videogame. (This situation is a spoof of The Last Starfighter, in which a young man is tested for piloting skills through a video game, and of Ender's Game - where a boy leads the armies of Earth against the "Buggers" while thinking he is playing a video game; the Keanu Reeves reference comes from his messianic roles, such as Neo in The Matrix and the title character in Constantine). Unfortunately, Kenny is revived just after hearing this. Because he had been dead for too long, he cannot talk or communicate and has suffered permanent brain damage. He is kept alive through the use of a feeding tube. The reading of Kenny's will, in which Cartman is given the PSP (out of pity) and Stan and Kyle are given everything else, is interrupted by the announcement that Kenny is still alive. The lawyer mentions a passage about Kenny's wishes in the event of him being in a vegetative state, but the last page of the will is missing, making it impossible to tell what his wishes were.
As Satan's army begins to close in, the angels need Kenny dead so that they can win the battle of the Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Cartman, claiming his status as Kenny's "best friend forever" to the Colorado Supreme Court with the first half of the BFF medallion, gets an order to take out the feeding tube, and he removes the tube after tracking down and finding Kenny's other BFF medallion half. Kyle and Stan, along with Kenny's parents and other protesters, including Skeeter and Mr. Garrison (who gets arrested for trying to bring food and water to Kenny), wage a media war to put the feeding tube back in and keep Kenny alive, while Cartman enlists supporters of the rights of "best friends forever" to leave Kenny's feeding tube removed.
After a long, intensive media campaign, the two sides are arguing in Kenny's hospital suite when Kenny's lawyer announces that the last page of the will has been found, and that Kenny's wishes were that if he were ever in a vegetative state, "please, for the love of God…don't ever show me in that condition on national television." In full twist of irony the two sides immediately realize that they have both been disrespectful of Kenny's wishes, and they leave Kenny alone to die in peace. However, Kenny never stated in his will that he wanted the tube removed, he only wanted to avoid media attention towards the issue.
Kenny returns to Heaven just in time to command the angels to victory; the battle is not seen, but is described ("Oh, how I wish I had a camcorder!", "Ooh, now they're calling in their demon dragons! Look at the size of them!", "Oh, this battle is bigger than the final battle of the Lord of the Rings movie! It's TEN times bigger than that battle!!!") The battle ends with a few surviving angels weakly cheering and dancing and Kenny receiving a prize wholly out of proportion with the effort and sacrifice he has made to save Heaven: a golden statue of Keanu Reeves.
[edit] Parallels to the Terri Schiavo case
- Kenny is in a persistent vegetative state, and his parents cite things like blinking or smiling as signs of awareness, rather than categorizing them as the involuntary movements that are characteristic of those in a persistent vegetative state.
- In making his case for the removal of the feeding tube, Cartman points to his rights as Kenny's "best friend forever (or BFF for short)" and he is given custody, instead of Kenny's parents and real friends. In the real-life case, custody of Terri Schiavo was given to her husband Michael Schiavo (who wanted the feeding tube removed), not to her parents.
- Cartman is seeking Kenny's removal from life support purely out of self-interest, as he will only get the PSP if Kenny dies. Some have argued that Michael Schiavo was also acting out of self-interest because of the insurance money or for other selfish reasons. Both Michael Schiavo and Cartman claimed they were only following the wishes of their loved ones.
- Members of the Republican Party rally to the cause (in Kenny's case: they, along with George W. Bush, are unwittingly being controlled by a hooded minion of Satan (called Kevin), which uses the Republicans to achieve its goals).
- Mrs. Garrison tries to bring food and water to Kenny but gets arrested, as many in favor of keeping Terri Schiavo alive did in a symbolic effort during her dying days.
- The misplaced page of Kenny's will (as written above) implicates the media and both arguing sides of his friends and family as being disrespectful for displaying him on national television to try and gain supporters for their argument. As many South Park episodes end with a stated moral lesson, the implied lesson here is that both sides of the Terri Schiavo debate are wrong for making a private issue and family struggle a politicized media spectacle.
- Terri Schiavo herself died the day after this episode aired, two weeks after having had her feeding tube removed.
[edit] Awards
- This episode won a 2005 Emmy Award in the category of "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming less than one hour)". This is the first time the show has beaten other nominees, such as The Simpsons and other winners. It also becomes the fourth prime time animated cartoon to win the award, behind The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Futurama.
[edit] Cultural references
- Paralleling (or parodying) the film Dogma, this episode also has the heavenly hero trapped on Earth in a vegetative state, preventing him from saving the universe.
- HBC's world news show looks like the BBC's world news
- After Satan is defeated, he turns on his adviser, who resembles (especially given the other references in this episode) Gríma Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings but wears a black cloak more in keeping with Darth Sidious from Star Wars. His appearance also arguably resembles the Devil's portrayal in the Mel Gibson directed film The Passion of The Christ. Satan refers to him by name as Kevin, and zaps him. The advisor could also be considered to be a parody of Desaad, Darkseid's advisor.
- A The Lord of the Rings reference in the episode includes the orb used by Satan, a reference to the palantír held by Saruman, the gates of Heaven being deliberately designed to look like Minas Tirith and Satan's minions are reminiscent of the Orcs and Uruk-hai from the movies. The council from the Angels is also a reference to Lord of the Rings. Also, during his description of the battle, Archangel Michael comments that the battle is "ten times bigger" than the one in the last Lord of the Rings, referring to the CGI battles in the films. The armies of Heaven and Hell are clearly modeled after those in the final battle in the series.
- There are many references to Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the episode. When Kenny is at the gate of Heaven, a Pythonesque "Open the gate!" is heard - this is also said by King Arthur in the film. Moreover, Heaven's army celebrates winning the war by cheering in a manner not unlike the similar moment of "much rejoicing" in the film's animation segments of Terry Gilliam.
- There are also parallels with the plot of the novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card of a game actually controlling real events.
- The reference to Keanu Reeves and the statue likeness of him appear to be a reference to Constantine, a film in which Reeves stars as an exorcist fighting the forces of hell. Michael also says that the battle is "bigger than the one in The Matrix", which also starred Reeves.
- This is the second and final time Kenny is killed in this season. The first was in the episode that aired right before this, Wing.
- While the catchphrase "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny! You bastards!" is not uttered in its entirety during the episode, it is referenced twice: Once during the protests, Kyle leads the protesters by yelling, "Don't kill Kenny!" with the crowd responding, "You Bastards!" After removing the feeding tube which leads to Kenny's final death and return to heaven, Michael gleefully observes, "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!"
[edit] Goofs
- On the way to Luau's Toys, Cartman and his mom are riding a white mini van with blue interiors, but when they arrive, the mini van is blue with red interiors.
| Preceded by "Wing" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "The Losing Edge" |
